Detonando em Barcelona

What a fun movie! All the fast-paced action, brilliant stunts and slapstick humor that make Jackie's work great. Jackie and Sammo are terrific and the scenes set in elaborately catered parties give new meaning to the term "food fight". A movie that will have you laughing all the way thru.

An emblematic Hong Kong action comedy in its heyday conjoined by legendary Kung Fu trio Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, shot abroad in Barcelona with Sammo also taking the director job, WHEELS ON MEALS sees Chan and Yuen as two cousins, Thomas and David respectively, who are adroit in martial arts (and skateboards), run a fast food van in the tourist spot, soon they will team up with Hung's amateurish shamus Moby to fight against the evil Mondale (Sancho), whose henchmen are relentlessly hunting down a young heiress Sylvia (the stunning former Miss Spain, Lola Forner), with whom both Thomas and David are infatuated.

The star trio (their third picture together, preceded by PROJECT A and WINNERS AND SINNERS, both released in 1983) brings about authentic bonhomie in their two against one raillery, with Hung often comically in the receiving end of the ribbing and pratfalls. Forner's deceptively virtuous damsel-in-distress (petty larceny merely a peccadillo) doesn't drive a wedge between the two cousins, instead, Thomas and David's gauche vying for her affection elicits abundant lulz, including one sterling idea from Thomas, by suggesting David's father (Paul Chang Chung) to marry Sylvia's mother (Sentís), both mental hospital residents (there are stimulating cameos from regular collaborators Richard Ng, Wu Ma and John Sam as fellow head cases) who are smitten with each other, to the utter dismay of Yuen, since he and Sylvia will become step-siblings.

Whereas the plot gives no spectacular twists or suspense to elevate WHEELS ON MEALS head and shoulders above its similar peers, the climatic action set piece is a captivating blinder, in particular, the fisticuffs between Jackie Chan and kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez, which gives a visceral flesh-to-flesh impact that bespeaks what makes martial arts actioner such an entertaining delight to watch, and Chan's epiphany of loosing up in the face of a formidable rival well speaks volume of his trademark amalgamation of levity and lethality that eventually would win him gazillion of fans in every nook and cranny of the world, an exemplar of how to take up the baton (from Bruce Lee, obviously) and pass it on with one's own distinctive style (Chan is in his sixties and his clout still rolls on).

Elsewhere, Hung relishes in the self-referential jokes of his (only slightly at then) portly figure (when Moby hollers around in looking for a man named Fatso, whose corpulence can legitimately pale him into insignificance, or the running jokes of being unable to keep up with a simian Chan in all the shinning and whisking), and in fact, Hung is famous for his disproportionate agility that lends him a unique presence among other uniformly jacked Chinese martial artists. Without any help of wire-fu, Hung really cuts it both in and behind cameras, and WHEELS ON MEALS is a testimony to the halcyon days of Hong Kong action cinema, fun, thrill and a bit of romance, recommended for the whole family.

Great movie with, trio of world's most famous kung-fu action stars (Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Bao) in their prime. This is the movie that basically established Jackie Chan's style of combining slap stick humor with action in international settings. The trio broke the barrier of traditional Hong Kong movie making style in this film. Being from the same Peking Opera school, their friendship can be seen even through their acting.

Jackie and Yuen operates a food wagon and Jackie plays a waiter on roller skates. They get entangled with a prostitute who are hunted by gang of thugs which gets them entangled in trouble as well.

You can see that they were having fun making this movie, and you'll also see the incredible physical prowess of the three actors.

Masterpiece for the three actors who became international stars in the coming years.

I just wonder about the title though. Shouldn't it be Meals on Wheels instead of Wheels on Meals ?

I first heard of this when TNT was showing it after the TV premiere of Rumble In The Bronx. I couldn't make it through the first 10 minutes because of the bad dubbing and the mixing around of scenes (The very first scene was Jackie and Yuen skateboarding in Spain, rather than them waking up and getting into their morning routine). A couple of months ago, I got the Hong Kong DVD and loved it.

The movie is about Thomas (Chan) and David (Biao), two Chinese guys who run a successful food truck business in Spain. They get caught up in wannabe detective Moby's (Hung) case to find a Spanish heiress, and the fun goes from there. The chemistry is great between the three brothers, and Lola Forner is a great distraction. The writing is funny, and Sammo's direction is right on target. The fight scenes are great. If you want to watch vintage Jackie, watch this film as he can move quick. The much talked about fight between Chan and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez does not disappoint. Want a lesson in how to do a fight scene? Watch these two guys go at it (They would have a rematch a few years later in Dragons Forever).

For all of you fans of JC credit outtakes, there is none (JC didn't start using them until Police Story). But in a funny, action packed movie like this, you won't care. It is one of The 3 Brothers best, and it will leave you wanting more.

The basic synopsis of Wheels on Meals is as follows: Jackie Chan and Yuen Baio are two Chinese immigrants who run a mobile snack van business in Barcelona. Sammo Hung, also a chinese immigrant living in Barcelona, works as a very badly dressed PI. Sammo is hired by a dubious looking gentleman in a bowler hat to track down a Spanish girl, who it just so happens is the daughter of Yuen Baios dad's girlfriend. This sets the scene for, amongst other things, a bizarre retro skateboarding sequence, a ludicrous car/van chase and a top class fight at the end.

For me, Wheels on Meals represents the ultimate combination of comedy kung fu and naive slapstick humor. It's worth pointing out that this film isn't as good a Martial Arts flick as some of the earlier works that it's three main stars were involved in (Young Master, Magnificent Butcher, Prodigal Son, etc). However, the main strength of Wheels on Wheels is it's ability to get new mileage out of some very old gags, and it also proves once and for all that unusual hats can be very funny.

I give it nine out of ten.